Dark Star

12. Impact

“Varick has a gun as well, and if you try anything, he will not hesitate to hurt you.”

Although he might have meant for it to be a threat, Vesper thought it sounded more like he was trying to warn her. She looked to the man he seemed so anxious to talk to, curious. He looked attractive, blonde hair and blue eyes, but dangerous. Not someone she'd want to talk to.

Varick grabbed a hold of her arm, as she watched Josef walk away, not roughly. Just letting her know she wasn't to go anywhere. Josef left the room with the man, and she turned toward Varick. His mask was simple and black, but it had a long pointed beak that came out of it, so it gave his face a strange appearance. As she looked at him, she realized she knew next to nothing about him; and how could she? He'd only spoken a handful of words to her, since they'd met so abruptly. She decided to see if she could get him to talk.

“Who was that man that Josef left with?” She asked, the only thing she could think to say.

He was quiet for awhile, to the point that she thought he wasn't going to respond. Or maybe he hadn't heard her. She was going to try a different approach when he finally spoke.

“His name is Damien,” He answered, in a flat voice. “Damien Ryder.”

“Why did Josef want to talk to him so badly?”

This time he didn't answer at all. She waited, but he acted as if she weren't even there, let alone speaking to him. Varick was a very strange person, she really didn't get him. From the moment she'd laid eyes on him, he always seemed to react to things randomly, without reason. She was truly puzzled about him.

Varick pulled on her arm a little, leading her over to a table that was laid out with all kinds of delicate, little desserts. Standing still appeared odd at a party, so he was evidently trying to blend in. She watched his face, trying to learn anything she could about him. He'd glance around the room, occasionally, keeping an eye on everything going on, but otherwise his face was emotionless.

“How do you know Josef?” Vesper finally thought to ask.

Varick seemed a little surprised by this. “What do you mean?” He responded.

“The way you two act towards each other, you clearly know one another well. How did did you meet, though?”

“We've known each other since we were kids,” He finally answered, after a pause. “We grew up living on the same street, we've always done everything together.”

“It must be nice, to have known someone that long.”

He didn't respond, and she began to think of the first conversation she had with Carsten. Varick seemed, like Carsten, to be a pretty nice guy, other than the reasons why they were in this situation. How did someone who seemed so normal do something like this?

“Why did you go to the bank that day?” She waited, but still got no answer. “Was it because of your friendship with Josef, or were you only interested in the money?”

“I don't care about the money.”

“Then, it was because of Josef?”

“Yeah, I guess in a way, it was.”

“How could you just let him do everything he has done? If you were really telling the truth when you said you don't care about the money. But maybe you were just lying.”

“What do you mean?” His voice rising, she seemed to finally be getting to him.

“He killed someone,” She wanted to yell, but tried to be quiet because she didn't want to attract attention. “Someone you said was a friend of yours. How can you just stand by and do nothing?”